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It's only a small percent of the population, and I can only go by what I see from my own in-laws on Facebook and in person, but I sense that Sikhs are becoming wary of Modi and the BJP. At first, "anything but Congress" seemed good enough, and they were thoroughly sick of the Gandhi/Nehru families. Manmohan Singh was a nice blip, but it seemed after his tenure Congress were back to business as usual. BJP makes a lot of the fact that Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs are all part of the same faith tradition, so they are all "native" religions and not problematic. Given the other concerns, this was enough to want to give them a chance, especially partnered with a local conservative-leaning party in Punjab.

Now, after a decade of power, the bloom is off the rose (or the lotus, maybe). Modi's tendencies are more obviously authoritarian and his economic policies are very much geared towards big business and the biggest cities. Punjab is still very agrarian, and many Sikhs have been at the forefront of the farmers' protests in India. As support has eroded locally, the BJP's grip on national politics has strengthened, and you're basically seeing them re-create Khalistani terrorism out of thin air to have a scary label for frustrated farmers, mostly by going after fringe activists in India and the diaspora, in several cases carrying out extra-judicial assassinations on foreign soil.

Khalistani sympathies began a fairly quick and steep decline after Air India Flight 182 in 1985. Separatism was a relic of history in a pluralistic India, and the general sense I get is that while few Sikhs shed a tear for Indira Gandhi, it was all in the past. No one in my wife's family thought Khalistan was worth even a passing thought until Modi started turning off the entire internet in Punjab and shooting kooky uncles in Vancouver. If it becomes any sort of serious movement, it will largely be Modi's fault.

Then, with most of the "Fuck dem Muslims" items checked off the to-do list, you're beginning to see the more brazen Hindutva types start to bring out the old saw that not only is Sikhism part of the same religious tradition, it's not even distinct enough to be its own religion at all, but is just a provincial flavor of Hinduism. Devout Sikhs find this paternalistic and deeply offensive, and even less devout ones find it eye-rolling from the fringe but threatening coming from the mainstream.

Every time I see an article on this prick I think, "Well this fucking sucks."

Anyway, this fucking sucks.

It's really fucked up. And from what I understand, this asshole (and his downright fascist party) has insane popular support in India. Add to it the rampant abuse of control over the media and the courts, it's getting really fucking scary

This is the best summary I could come up with:

“We never imagined that we would get power in such a way,” said Ambalal Koshti, 76, who says he first brought Modi into the political wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the late 1960s in their home state, Gujarat.

A few decades earlier, while Mahatma Gandhi preached Hindu-Muslim unity, the RSS advocated for transforming India — by force, if necessary — into a Hindu nation.

Modi’s spiritual and political upbringing from the RSS is the driving force, experts say, in everything he’s done as prime minister over the past 10 years, a period that has seen India become a global power and the world’s fifth-largest economy.

Born in 1950 to a lower-caste family, his first exposure to the RSS was through shakhas — local units — that induct boys by combining religious education with self-defense skills and games.

Today, the RSS has spawned a network of affiliated groups, from student and farmer unions to nonprofits and vigilante organizations often accused of violence.

In a nod to his Hinduism, he practices yoga in front of TV crews and the U.N., extols the virtues of a vegetarian diet, and preaches about reclaiming India’s glory.

The original article contains 1,265 words, the summary contains 193 words. Saved 85%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Booo... he needs to get out of power

They guy is old. It will change. Hopefully less religion. I consider religion based government states as flyover regions. Thanks but no thanks you can keep it all to yourselves.